Al Gore

JUNE 20, 2007

My version of Al Gore for Rolling Stone.

Just before leaving for vacation I got a fun assignment from Rolling Stone. The next issue (on the stands now) was going to be the Green Issue. Everyone seems to have to produce a green something. Green buildings, concerts, conventions and issues.
The article is about Al's fight against the climate crisis
The idea was to have Gore holding the world on his shoulders.
I love Rolling Stone and love working for them. When I was a kid I would see the illustrations in there and dream of being published in these pages. I came up with a couple of cool sketches and in deciding to make the globe burning, I had fun adding the flames to Gore's back. He takes a ton of flack for caring about our planet and this seemed a good commentary. That aspect was pruned from the final sketch and the accepted version became my painting.
After handing it in with one day before I left word came that Jann Wenner did not care for the flames OR the distressed Gore. I gave repainting his face a shot and did a tiny portrait and photoshopped it in. I could not clone out the flames so I dropped in the reference. When I was finished it was much more tame and I felt a bit sunk about that, but that's the way it goes sometimes.
I add all this to my blog not wanting a tisk-tisk-o-thon for the changes, but to at least get my painting seen. They are really nice up there and were extremely gentle and respectful about the changes. At least I have the artwork.